The use in industry of rings to be shrunk presents a certain advantage insofar as they are inexpensive and ensure permanent clamping.
For example, shrunk rings are much appreciated in the automobile industry to ensure fixation of the gussets disposed around mechanical connections, such as homokinetic joints, between two parts of a transmission of a vehicle, particularly of the "front-wheel drive" type. During assembly of such a transmission, the first end of the median shaft of the transmission, for example the output shaft of the motor, is first fitted in a first homokinetic joint bowl, and a first gusset is positioned, whose wide end surrounds the bowl and whose narrow end surrounds the median shaft. A conventional process may then be employed for shrinking a large ring on the wide end which, on the bowl side, is easily accessible to a tool for shrinking this large ring, and a small ring on the narrow end which, on the median shaft side, is accessible to another tool for shrinking this small ring.
From the second end of the median shaft, there is then fitted on this shaft a second gusset by its narrow end. A problem is raised when, after having fitted the second end of the median shaft in a second homokinetic joint bowl and having displaced the second gusset axially so that its wide end surrounds the second bowl and its narrow end surrounds the median shaft in the vicinity of its second end, it is proposed to fix this second gusset. In fact, although the wide end is accessible to a shrinking tool on the second bowl side, and may therefore be fixed by a large ring to be shrunk, access of a shrinking tool to the narrow end of the second gusset is prevented by the first and second bowls.
In fact, although there is nothing to prevent a small ring to be shrunk from being disposed on the narrow end of the second gusset before fitting the latter on the shaft, no known process allows such a ring to be shrunk, which renders use thereof impossible.
To fix the narrow end of the second gusset, one is consequently obliged to employ, in place of a shrunk ring which presents the advantages set forth hereinbefore, a band clamp fitting which is more expensive and less practical.
The state of the art generally does not allow use of a shrunk ring for clamping an object on a cylindrical support when an axial obstacle is connected to the support, in front of that part of said support where it is desired to clamp this object.
As has just been seen, this presents practical drawbacks and involves excess costs.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome these drawbacks by proposing a process which makes it possible to use a ring to be shrunk, even when it must be placed behind an axial obstacle, as well as a device for carrying out such a process.